Aronofsky to make Black Swan First, Robocop Reboot Delayed

With a leading lady (Natalie Portman) already signed up for his “passion project”, a little supernatural thriller called “Black Swan”, and the script for that much-discussed “Robocop” reboot still in the, er, not-quite-finished-and-probably-never-will-be stages, I don’t think anyone should be surprised to learn that director Darren Aronofsky will likely make “Swan” his next film post-“The Wrestler”. So what does this mean for MGM’s 2011 target date for “Robocop”?

Maybe a Aronofsky-less “Robocop” reboot, perhaps? According to THR’s Risky Biz Blog, MGM may not wait for Aronofsky, and rumor has the studio already sending out feelers for a replacement director. I’ve always found the idea of Aronofsky directing a movie like “Robocop” to be, well, sort of unnatural. Mind you, not that I don’t think Aronofsky is incapable, but it just never felt right to me, and the fact that Aronofsky has been bashing on the script with co-writer David Self for a while now may be the result of that improbable meshing he’s attempting.

In any case, if all goes according to plan for Aronofsky, he will be putting “Black Swan” into production by Fall 2009. He’ll have to finish it by mid-2010, when “Robocop” is scheduled to go into production to meet its 2011 date. Whether that’s with Aronofsky behind the camera, remains to be seen.